Best Streamer/DACs Under $1000: Bluesound Node Icon Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- The Blusound Node Icon is a four-part product: streamer, D/A converter, headphone amp and room correction system. You could use it as the hub of a system simply by adding powered speakers or a stereo amp and speakers.
Rather than try to do many things, but somewhat badly, in this review I want to look at the Node Icon simply as a streamer/DAC, which I think is its foundational functionality. To whet your appetite, I will compare it to my reference $35,000 streamer/DAC through the lens of the absolute sound.
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Tom Martin’s Reference System:
Aurender N200 Server
Roon Nucleus server
Mac Mini (M2) server
Wiim Pro server/DAC
Bluesound Node server/DAC
Topping D70 Pro DAC
dCS Lina DAC/Master clock
Berkeley Alpha DAC Reference Series 3 with Alpha USB Series 2 input module
J Sikora Initial Max turntable
Technics SL-1210G turntable
Kuzma 4Point 9” arm
J Sikora KV12 tone arm
DS Audio 003 cartridge
Benz Gullwing SLR cartridge
Hana Umami Blue cartridge
Hegel V10 phono preamp
Musical Surroundings Phonomena III phono preamp
DS Audio 003 optical cartridge energizer
Audio Research Reference 6SE preamp
PS Audio BHK 600 mono power amps
MBL N51 integrated amplifier
Magico A5 speakers
Wireworld Platinum Electra speaker and line cables
Shunyata Omega digital cables
Shunyata Venom power cables and director
AVN Systems acoustic design
Rediacoustic diffusers and absorbers
Rediacoustic bass traps
Salamander racks
Solidsteel Turntable rack
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Yet another great review - the best quality reviews on Utube - period
Thanks. I appreciate this review and your methodology.
Nice honest review. Keep up at this level and life will be good for audiophiles.
Nice honest review. Keep up at this level of truth in your reviews the way you did here and life will be good for audiophiles.
Tom, Nice review. I installed full-bandwidth Dirac Live in mid-Dec and it sounds superb. Overall, this product has great value. I principally use it to feed my PS Audio DS Mk II DAC. This is a major upgrade over the USB output of Dell laptop where i was running Dirac Live. Answering another question, I run the Icon's USB output into a Matrix Audio USB-to-I2S converter and that works flawlessly. Please keep up these excellent video reviews.
Finally the real reviews are coming out. Am actually in the market and will take Tom's very trustworthy analysis under consideration.
It would've been great if you had done a streamer to streamer comparison for the Node Icon as a transport, the same way you had the Aurender feeding the Berkeley DAC.
@@infn For clarity, I only compared the combination Aurender/Berkeley to the Node Icon streamer/DAC. I, perhaps incorrectly, assumed people interested in the Node Icon would want the combination.
I've had one for a month and I've been very impressed with it. I'd like a few more personalisation options, such as VU meters or different clock faces, which indirectly says a lot about the sound, as I wouldn't want to change anything about that.
Would you have thoughts on comparing the Node Icon as compared to the Eversolo streamer DACs?
@@paulwisconsin456 We haven’t reviewed the Eversolos. If there is interest we’d consider it.
You kidding? They're on fire. @TASmagazine
Should really compare this streamer DAC to others in its price range. Those who can afford the Berkeley Reference Series 3 are not looking to use the Node Icon in their main system.
At 10:33 that is NOT a picture of the N51!
Yeah, CK grabbed the wrong image in an effort to have a black version for image clarity.
I actually don't think the icon and the topping dac mentioned use the same dac chip. The one in the Topping is a higher tier one. Good review.
@@JoseFerreira-zb7wh No not the same, same family (9039). Also, the 9039 Pro (Topping) has better s/n measurements than the Q2M in stereo mode. But in the Bluesound it is dual mono, so who knows? So, we listen.
@TASmagazine yes.
Can you please review the new Aurender A1000 (streamer/DAC/Preamp)?Need to know how it sounds and compares to other products like the EverSolo DMP A10.
I can guarantee you AURENDR will mop the floor on any kind of ever solo product.
@ thanks, however there’s only 1 review on TH-cam by VirtualHifi where the EverSolo DMP A10 was preferred over the Aurender A1000!
can it be used as just a streamer into an external dac?
It looks like it has S/pidf optical and coax. No aes/ebu 😢 or isq2
So yes it can be used as a streamer only.
yes
I think I read or saw somewhere (even though "real" reviews are just barely starting to come out) that the Icon's streaming platform is the same or similar to the regular Node. So if you are planning on buying the Icon just to pass the data on to an external DAC, you'd be better sticking with a regular Node or even Node Nano and keeping the money for something else. But if you are interested in using the DAC (and preamp) of the Icon, that is where the extra money over the Node is justified... Sorry I can't remember which reviewer mentioned that. You could also strategize around the digital output as part of a plan to grow your system with an external DAC later, keeping the Icon as a streamer, in that way the extra money still makes sense. Just don't by the Icon for the streamer section only. (According to what I read.)
@@biggregyo There is USB out as well.
There are very very few recordings that know how to reproduce cymbals. People need to go to live concerts and jazz clubs and whatever else they really understand what instruments sound like in that environment not at home. At home, you can have great recordings sounding better than the live event, or worse on occasion. But they will never soundlike the acoustic environment of a live event it is as close to impossible is trying to live on the sun
i heard somewhere that it’s called soundscape
the ability of your system to recreate the live event’s acoustic goods/bads
We generally refer to it as soundspace. But soundscape is reasonable. See our Glossary in the Audiopedia section of The Absolute Sound website.
Someone in a review said there was some issues with the XLR outputs vs the SE outputs… Did you notice anything of this sort? E.g. gain problem, sound quality?
@@OMDF01 I only used the XLR outputs, since these appear to be the “native” signal. I set these to full output. I used a preamp to adjust volume. Gain settings on the preamp were normal. No problems at all.
If they are dual mono DAC chips how do they ensure that each mono section is clocked identically?
We don't know the circuit design (ESS application notes require a license) but a common clock signal would be one answer.
I currently use an Auralic Altair G1.1 with an ES9038Q2M DAC chip. I see that the Node Icon has 2x ES9039Q2M DAC chips. I'm not really happy with the Auralic Altair G1.1, it is slow sometimes, Tidal Connect doesn't work 20% of the time, I have to restart the unit and such, so it's quite annoying. Considering that both use almost the same ESS chips I'm guessing the performance and sound quality would be on par? Can I switch to the Node Icon without 'missing out' much?
We don't know because we haven't tested the Auralic in the same system. But in theory you are stepping up with the 9039 (not sure if this is major, but likely not a bad thing). So the question is really the sound quality of the streamers. But the operational inconvenience is kind of a buzzkill, so we'd consider moving just for that, which seems to be your thinking. The other factor we'd think about, if you are using the Auralic as a volume control, is the remote. The Node Icon basically offers a phone/tablet based app for volume control. We don't enjoy such volume controls, but you may be fine with them. Other brands (e.g. Lumin) offer optional remotes and lossless volume controls. Or you may be using a preamp for volume control in which case you use the fixed volume setting of the Node Icon and the remote of your preamp.
I mainly listen to Tidal Connect on my Node Icon and it works really well. I don’t remember having any problems with it.
I previously used the ifi Zen Stream and had a miserable time when using it for Tidal Connect.
Hello how are you 🙂. Can People plug other things in to the bluesound like their tv to use it for the dac in it when not streaming and what does the dac in it compare to when just comparing it to just a dac thank you for any help you can give me 🙂.
Yes, tv optical to Node
Node optical to DAC 😊
You may find the HDMI eARC connections provides a more seamless integration with your TV. If you'd like to use an external DAC, the Node Icon offers COAX out and (as Carl mentioned) Optical out.
@@Jason_Methfessel And USB out.
The best Streamer/DAC is the one you can afford.
Yes, w easy interface use
No. I can afford a $20K+ DAC/Streamer but I won’t pay it. I do recommend Lumin DAC’s $2-15K. They are the only one’s doing LEEDH volume for preamp applications.
That’s true for anything
If it were one dollar over $1,000:00, would it sound better than one that was sold at $999:00?
@@peanutbutterjellyjam2179 Highly doubtful, but given how many people freak out about pricing, it is possible that for some it would sound worse.
In what world do you review a sub-$1000 streaming DAC without comparing it to the DMP-A6?
The DMP-A6 looks nice, thanks for the tip. The 'world' you enquire about is the real world. A world with 2000 OEMs making 20,000 products of which we can review about 200 per year. A world where we don't know every product in every segment from every manufacturer. A world consisting of some OEMs operating on a shoestring who sometimes don't have PR or marketing departments (aka 'low profile'). A world consisting of some suppliers who are slow and difficult to work with (months of dead air). A world where previously interesting products are not available for review as they go out of production. A world where the company simply doesn't have enough review samples, because...shoestring. A world where some small OEMs have very limited production and don't want reviews because they are sold out. You get the idea.
The death of MQA had everything to do with intentionally misrepresenting their product, pure and simple.
$35K. 🤪
$999?
@@TASmagazine
Well at least that is more affordable for most people, and they won't feel so bad when that DAC chip is obsolete. But if you have the funds to blow more power to you.
No UPnP, no way.
Thanks a lot for this very practical and honoust review.
Can anyone help me with what is in his/her opinion a 'better' connection to the amplifier?
As das as I am concerned I have 3 options:
Optical cable
Vca -vca
Xlr - vca
I am quite interested in the last one: xlr -vca if any of you can say something about this kind wil f connection.
My amp is a Denon PMA110A
If by XLR to vca you mean balanced XLR to single-ended RCA, that connection will be single ended and the same as RCA-RCA.
Me personally I would just keep saving until I could afford a real music streamer. Plus a screen on a streamer makes about as much sense as…
Modded BS Node ain't half bad
@@CarlVanDoren61
You’re still miles ahead if you get something like INNUOS or a AURENDER.
@@biggregyo I mean, he literally compared it to an Aurender N200 and said the differences were very subtle. What makes this not a "real" streamer anyway?
Without proper power supply
Another average streamer
Seems you’re missing the point.
True. I changed N130’s internal board and added LPS, much much better.
for christ sakes stop saying timbre
I believe it's 'Christ's sake.'
@Jason_Methfessel I believe you sniff your own farts.